On a journey that so many great unsung heroes have made before, foreigners traveled great lengths to embark upon America and experience its great integrity and diversity.

However, the journey was only 12 hours by tour bus and the foreigners hail from the not-so-far border of Quebec, Canada.

Students from Polyvalante-Benoit Vachon School in Quebec visited Neshaminy and the United States the weekend of Gym Night and left raving about our country’s not-so-different but different culture and style of living.

On Thursday March 1, students arrived at Neshaminy around 11 a.m. and spent the day with their American host going from class to class.

For most of the students, English is a second language and they observed what was going on. At the end of the day, students went home with their Neshaminy hosts and spent the evening with them.

French teacher Kathryn Griffen explained that on the Friday and Saturday of their four-day trip, the Quebecois students visited Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

“Of course they had to see ‘Rocky’,” said Griffen referring to the statue formally located in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Griffen reported no problems on the trip but said it was hard to explain to a few students that they were not allowed to smoke while travelling. “Many of the students smoke right outside their school building during their break in the day,” said Griffen.
In the ten year anniversary of this exchange, Principal Mark

Collins also got involved by hosting two students. “It was a real treat,” said Collins. “My wife is a French teacher but it was a stretch of our minds when [the students] spoke English. One asked for butter while we were eating pizza.”

However, none of the cities visited compared with the Saturday night viewing of Gym Night. Griffen mentioned that the Canadian teachers try to plan their trip around Gym Night every year because it is such an exciting event to see. Collins was proud of the show that Neshaminy put on and agreed that it was the students favorite part of their trip.

This trip was arranged so Quebec students could interact with teenagers their own age and hopefully come away knowing that there are people just like them right across the border.